The Guardian | 19.01.2018
Rooms were lying empty at the City Plaza hotel in Athens. Now it’s an autonomous hive where refugees are empowered
David Patrikarakos
In May 2016, after the EU-Turkey agreement designed to close off mass immigration to Europe, a group of 120 migrants accompanied by volunteers stormed the well-known City Plaza hotel in Athens. The hotel was vacant, its owners having gone bankrupt. Hundreds of rooms were lying empty while refugees suffered in camps far from the city.
The refugees set up shop there, and – despite government threats to cut off the water and electricity – have remained ever since. The hotel is a cacophony of noise. The sounds of small children shrieking waft through the reception area. Staccato bursts of Arabic, Urdu, Persian and English fill the room. The walls are adorned with posters. A blue sign with “City Plaza” written downwards on either sign flanks a message: Solidarity, together, resistance, unity, giving, getting, life, equality. The words written underneath each other their first letters highlighted in pink spell out “struggle”.
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